Chapter 10: Divergence

The ground shakes, buildings crumble, and amongst it all Berserker's roar echoes throughout the city as the massive behemoth clashes with the smaller warrior. While their battle has not been going on for longer than two minutes, for Ramiel it feels like it has been going on for much longer. Despite being taken over by madness, Heracles is easily one of the greatest opponents that he's faced in hand-to-hand combat. Even without the use of techniques his power and speed make such a 'weakness' unexploitable and the fluidity of his movements are simply absurd for one who has been taken over by madness. Unlike any other opponent that Ramiel has faced who had gone berserk, Heracles' movements are not clunky or completely mindless as he seamlessly transitions from punching and kicking to dodging or blocking Ramiel's blows.

Bending backwards to dodge a swipe at his head, Ramiel places his hands on the ground and proceeds to backflip over the following strike that completely tears the ground apart. Lunging into the berserker's guard, Ramiel smashes his fist into Heracles' stomach and sends him flying through a series of barely standing buildings. Roaring, Berserker stops his momentum and rushes back towards his opponent, catching part of a house as he does so and hurls it at his opponent with a loud roar.

Planting his feet on the ground, Ramiel shatters the roof with a punch before lunging past the debris towards Berserker. As he clears the last of the debris obstructing his vision, he finds himself facing Heracles' fist hurtling towards him at speeds too fast to dodge or redirect. Bringing his arms up in front of his chest to block the punch, Ramiel groans in pain as the impact rattles his bones before he's sent flying back with a roaring Heracles pursuing.

As he catches up with his enemy, Heracles grabs Ramiel by the torso before he can regain his bearing and drags him along the ground as he races through the city. As the duo fly through buildings and the street, Ramiel nails turn into claws as he grabs the hand dragging him through the ground and proceeds to rip it to shreds with a roar. Before he can take advantage of his newfound freedom, Heracles' other hand grabs him and repeatedly smashes him on the ground before throwing him into a burning house, causing it to topple on top of him.

Releasing another roar as his hand heals, Berserker prepares to launch himself at Ramiel's location only to suddenly dodge a Nameless Dagger that was poised to pierce through his neck. As he turns to face his assailant a chain wraps around his throat; however, before the assailant can make use of it, Heracles grabs hold of the chain and pulls them towards him while also launching a fist at them. Unexpectedly however, Medusa maneuvers herself over the fist and uses her momentum to smash her feet into Berserker's face, sending him flying and buying them a few seconds of reprieve.

While Medusa had been facing Heracles, Hancock had made her way to the collapsed building.

"Ramiel!" she calls out as she frantically looks for him in the rubble despite the flames hurting her.

Eventually she finds him under a flaming piece of rubble, his body mangled, broken, and filled with third degree burns. Despite this however she can tell that he is very much alive and aware. Before horror can truly set in, the sound of bones breaking and muscles tearing reaches her as Ramiel's body heals back into its optimal condition.

"Fuck, that hurt." says Ramiel as he picks himself up in front of a shocked, yet happy, Hancock. Despite being completely healed, he looks quite different from before with his eyes being the most noticeable change.

Whereas before they were normal barring the crimson irises, now the whites of his eyes are pitch black, his slit pupils glow a golden color, and the veins surrounding his eyes have become black and are quite visible despite his brown skin. However, the changes don't end there. His upper canines have turned into fangs that slightly protrude from his lips, the nails from his hands have turned into claws, red vein-like lines course throughout his body that is now covered in a lightning aura.

"You're ok." says Hancock with a relieved sigh.

"It'll take much more than this to put me down permanently." he replies as he cracks his neck and stretches his muscles, giving Hancock a full view of his now naked body and making her look away with an atomic blush.

Realising his current state of dress, he quickly apologises before focusing on his shroud that is currently in the form of a bracelet. With little effort, he turns the shroud into a white long sleeve turtleneck shirt, slim, formal black trousers, and black dress shoes. As soon as the shroud covers his body however, Heracles' roar resonates throughout the air and the ground under their feet shakes, heralding his approach.

"We need to take him out permanently." says Ramiel as he watches the approaching Berserker. "I will face him head on again while you and Medusa will slow him down using your chains and your Mystic Eyes." he says, earning a nod from Hancock.

With their admittedly simple plan made, Ramiel gives Hancock a reassuring smile before launching himself at the approaching behemoth with a sonic boom and a trail of lightning.

Despite being completely blitzed by Ramiel's new speed, Heracles is still able to launch a punch that collides with Ramiel's incoming fist, creating a shockwave that obliterates their immediate surroundings while also shattering the berserker's arm. Not giving Heracles time to recover, Ramiel plunges his other hand into his opponent's chest and rips out his heart.

Dying one time however is not enough to put him down and Heracles resurrects immediately with a fist hurtling towards Ramiel's head. Before it can reach however, Hancock wraps her chain around his wrist and pulls him back, staggering him enough for Ramiel to smash his skull into a pulp with a punch.

For the second time during their battle, Heracles resurrects. With a roar he pulls Hancock towards him using her chain. Having expected this outcome, Hancock lets go of the chain while using the momentum of the pull to kick towards his solar plexus, only for him to block it. Not deterred by the failure, she uses him as leverage to launch herself backwards where Ramiel grabs hold of her arm to swing her around and smash a kick into Heracles' face.

With a roar Heracles reaches out to grab her but misses when Ramiel pulls her back before sending Heracles flying with a punch to the chest.

Pursuing their opponent, the duo is quickly joined by Medusa. Like this, the three repeatedly clash against Heracles, making use of Medusa's mystic eyes to reduce all of his parameters by one rank. With his mana reduced to rank B, Hancock's mystic eyes are able to petrify parts of his body, significantly slowing him down and further increasing the gap between him and Ramiel who is now fighting with all of the physical advantages of his vampiric heritage in full display. His strength, endurance, and agility, which had been somewhat even with Heracles, have doubled, and his healing factor which now showcases its full capabilities would make most onlookers believe that he possesses the Dead Apostle's Curse of Restoration.

Their battle leaves much destruction in the already destroyed city as Heracles desperately struggles against his opponents, constantly roaring and aimlessly attempting to kill them only to be too slowly to catch any of them. And as the battle continues Heracles' lives are slowly chipped down until Ramiel plunges his arms into the berserker's body and rips him in half, killing him for the seventh time.

Throwing the body to the ground, Ramiel, Hancock and Medusa wait for him to resurrect, and sure enough Heracles doesn't disappoint.

With his body glowing a bright crimson color, Heracles' body returns to its optimal condition while the Berserker smashes his fists into the ground before looking up at his opponents. "RAAAAAAGHHHHHH!" he roars as he comes back to life with a far more enraged expression on his face than ever before.

Preparing themselves for the next few rounds, Ramiel, Hancock, and Medusa miss the appearance of a black shadow behind them. Without warning, dozens of tendrils shout out from the black shadow and wrap themselves around Ramiel and Heracles.

"Uh?" mutters a surprised Ramiel before the tendrils pull him and Heracles towards it.

It is an "unidentified object" that gives the impression of a jellyfish on land or a deep sea monster. Its presence dominates all who look upon it, seeming to distort space around it. It lacks eyes, limbs, or a body, but still casts a shadow at its base. It looks insubstantial, as if a shadow were to stand with so light an existence that it looks able to simply be blown away.

Noticing the situation that Ramiel is in, Hancock and Medusa lunge towards him in an attempt to free him from the tendrils; unfortunately they are forced to dodge as the shadow tries to impale them with more tendrils. Not willing to give up however, Hancock throws her daggers at Ramiel and wraps the chains around his arms.

Using the chains, Ramiel regains his footing and pulls himself towards Hancock while Medusa lunges towards the shadow.

Realising that Medusa is going to attempt to fight the shadow Ramiel lets go of Hancock's chain and allows himself to be pulled back towards the shadow before stopping himself in front of Medusa, intercepting her assault on the being and causing him to be stabbed by her daggers.

"Whatever you do, do not fight it. It's capable of devouring servants and any contact with it will corrupt you." he tells her as he rips the daggers from his arms and allows himself to be pulled into the shadow.

With its prey devoured, the black shadow twists within itself and disappears, leaving behind a shocked and enraged Hancock while Medusa stands there, bewildered and confused with the current situation.

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AN: I'll admit that my track record of publishing on schedule is not the best, but in my defense my health isn't exactly a consistent thing. Anyway, I'm back, again, with an admittedly short chapter. I tried to make it longer but it just ruined the flow. As usual, tell me what you guys think of it.